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All those youthful bastards getting their A-Levels today has made me think about my own life in education. Namely that I'd be interested in doing a Literature MA at some point in my life, both out of interest and because long-term employment literally isn't happening.

Unfortunately, I don't actually have any idea where to start looking. I know Student Finance doesn't fund MA students -- what funding options are available, or do I just have to balance that shit with a massive part-time job?

I thought I'd make a thread out of it to find all this stuff out... any of youse who have done MAs got advice, experience, to share?

also i am funded because i am a fully qualified genius. what is your degree in? there are some funding opportunities if you did really well at undergrad and can get good references, but yeah most people self-fund

got a 2:1, and my dissertation tutor had said he'd be happy to provide a reference; but I can see myself, having looked about, having to go for the self-funding option. I think it'll be a few years before I feel financially able to go ahead with it, though.

so it's nice that someone will pay me to do it. it's probably worth applying for funding anyway, if you spend some time on applications and really suck up to the department there's always a chance! also if you liked your undergrad uni, most places do a bit of a discount for alumni

Most funding seems to come from in-house for Masters, and is likely to be a reduced fee rather than a stipend etc. Check College/Department webpages at your uni/s of choice.

I funded mine with savings from a couple of years of fulltime employment and an interest-free student overdraft. It wasn't enough and I've recently moved back with my parents until I'm finished to save a little cash. I'm also working freelance, which brings in some beer money on the side.

In other words, it's fucking expensive, will put you in (possibly more) debt, is shitloads of work and effort but is almost certainly worth it if it's something you'll enjoy. I'll be no less employable, and it's given me a foothold in a sector I wouldn't have had much luck in before this.

I applied really late for mine so all that was available was a fee waiver. It's still good but means I need to get a part-time job (I mean, I don't really cause I'm also living with my parents but yeah, for beer and that).

If you don't think you built up enough of a relationship with anyone in your department, maybe email the course leaders of the courses you got the best marks in and ask if they'd be willing to write somehing. Make it clear that you are happy to fill them in on what you've done outside of uni and on the other side your degree (they wont know colleagues in the other dept probably). Academics can be really hard to pin down for this shit but you need to just persevere. You never know - you probably made a good impression in tutorials without even realising it.

had meetings with my legal history tutor about what to write and how to make it well impressive. I got into glasgow a day after I sent my application. If you're willing to pay for it, or have other means, they're barely even going to read it.

If you've gone to uni in Scotland (and you're Scottish or other non-uk EU), you're unlikely to have more than 10k of debt anyway. And if learning at a postgraduate level is something you feel is right for you or your career, a career development loan might be a wise choice.

I do feel quite lucky to live rent free walking distance from a good university. It annoys me a lot how a lot of good graduate degrees are in London. Ideally I'd have done my masters at LSE (it's in social research) but it would have cost me about £30,000. Tip: have relatively well off parents who live in Glasgow.

which while good for you not everyone has that luxury, i see a lot of students who've underestimated the financial cost of doing a masters/phd or have had to extend it for unexpected reasons and are now financially fucked

i agree career development loans are a good option, assuming your accepted, seen quite a few people being knocked back in the last year or so

a complete waste of time in terms of helping to form any sort of career or job prospects, but i had a great year, my writing really came on and i'll always be really proud of the dissertation that i produced. i genuinely look back on my time spent churning out that 50,000 word beast with great fondness*. just me, my one bedroom flat, nothing to do but read and write. good, good times.

funding for me was an absolute non-starter, because i work full-time. I'd be interested to know if any of the people up-thread who did get funding had jobs or not.

The hardest thing has been balancing work / attending seminars. I've been lucky to still keep a full time contract by grouping all my teaching hours together... but it has meant that i've had to take whichever modules happened to fall on the mornings i had off and at one point my uni said there was nothing available on the mornings i do have free. Anyway, all sorted now so just got one more year of busting my arse!